ORIGINS: UNIVERSE, LIFE, HUMANKIND, AND DARWIN

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We debate origins of the Universe, life, Earth, humans, religion, atheism, using common sense, evolution, cosmology, geology, archaeology, and other sciences, to repel biblical creationism and other religious beliefs.

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Shaun, it would seem to me that all animals are conscious, they simply don't possess the brain power to understand things the way we do because consciousness is directly proportional to the brains capacity.

Consciousness therefore is a natural occurrence and had to evolve with time and could not have simply popped into existence.

"Teach the controversy" demand Texas Creationists, as if there were a controversy.

I think there is a controversy, but it doesn't involve creationism. It involves how free will and consciousness evolved. If we can be conscious then consciousness can be an agent in the world through other "creatures." And it is only faith in Darwinism that makes some people deny free will--most others experience us as having it. Grant us free will and that too could exist in other agents in the world. To me it seems plausible that the creation (small "c") of conscious creatures like us with free will involved the operation of a process also involving (in some way) conscious and free will of its own.

"Earlier this year, the BoE (Board of Education) sent out letters to “experts” asking to help them evaluate the high school biology textbooks being considered for use. ...Several of the “experts” were creationists, and they met recently to give their opinions. Several statements given by them have been made public, :

"I understand the National Academy of Science's [sic] strong support of the theory of evolution. At the same time, this is a theory. As an educator, parent, and grandparent, I feel very firmly that ‘creation science’ based on Biblical principles should be incorporated into every Biology book that is up for adoption."

~ Member of Board of Education

" the First Amendment of the United States Constitution makes it clear that you cannot teach creation “science” in public schools. There have been many, many court cases about that, and they tend to fall on the side of reality. Teaching religion as fact in public schools is a big no-no."

Conflating goodness with God

That sounds a lot like the sort of thing I rail against. Absolute certainty is a worthless standard to hold a claim to. Any but the most dishonest theists (mostly the presuppositional apologetics idiots) admit to some degree of uncertainty in everything. You can't know anything with absolute confidence, when you come right down to it.

It's stupid to expect absolute certainty from atheists, when you don't maintain that standard for anything else. Forget default atheism, which is sufficient to embrace the label of atheist. I'm a strong atheist, at least in regards to the Abrahamic god. I'm positive that the god they worship doesn't exist, to any degree that it's worth worrying about certainty.